Two Nuns and a Pack Mule

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Two Nuns and a Pack Mule
TwoNunsandAPackMule.jpg
Studio album by
Rapeman
ReleasedAugust 23, 1988
Genre Post-hardcore, noise rock
LengthOriginal release: 29:11
Re-release: 43:55
Label Flag of the United States.svg Touch & Go Records
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Blast First
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Au Go Go Records
Flag of the Netherlands.svg Torso Records
Producer Steve Albini, Fluss
Rapeman chronology
Budd EP
(1988)		Two Nuns and a Pack Mule
(1988)		Inki's Buttcrack (7" single)
(1989)

Two Nuns and a Pack Mule is the only studio album by the Chicago noise rock band Rapeman, released by Touch & Go Records on August 23, 1988. The CD re-release contained the Budd extended play in its entirety.

Contents

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [1]
Alternative Rock 7/10 [2]
The Great Rock Discography 7/10 [3]
OndaRock 8/10 [4]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]

The indie music press largely applauded the album as the much awaited studio follow-up to Albini’s work with Big Black. Trouser Press compared it favorably to their previous release, writing that the album "fits Albini's distinctive meltdown guitar and shriek vocals into rough song forms [...] Rapeman spits out sparks with the conviction of Albini's acerbic intelligence." [6]

In retrospective reviews, Jason Ankeny of AllMusic wrote that the album "varies in its attack in ways Albini's old trio Big Black never did; the demented rhythms constantly threaten to veer out of control, and Albini's guitar screeches like something rabid and bloodthirsty", sarcastically writing that lyrically, "the group displays the same warmth and compassion so evident in their choice of a name [...] songs tackle sex ("Trouser Minnow"), ethnicity ("Hated Chinee"), and classic rock ("Radar Love Lizard")." [1] FACT Magazine ranked it the 28th best album of the 1980s, calling the "oft-overlooked" album "one of Albini’s greatest moments on the other side of the production desk." Dominick Fernow of Prurient-fame wrote that the album "was one of the first rock records I ever heard that made me question owning it [...] quite possibly the last dangerous rock album made?" [7]

Track listing

All songs written by Rapeman, except track 9, written by Billy Gibbons and Bill Ham.

Side Yo

  1. "Steak and Black Onions" – 2:47
  2. "Monobrow" – 3:45
  3. "Up Beat" – 2:15
  4. "Coition Ignition Mission" – 2:23
  5. "Kim Gordon's Panties" – 4:17

Side Mo

  2. "Hated Chinee" – 2:01
  3. "Marmoset" – 1:50
  4. "Radar Love Lizard" – 2:12
  5. "Just Got Paid" – 3:35 (ZZ Top cover)
  6. "Trouser Minnow" – 4:06

Bonus tracks on CD edition, originally from the Budd EP

  2. "Budd" – 7:29
  3. "Superpussy" – 2:12
  4. "Log Bass" – 2:23
  5. "Dutch Courage" – 2:40

The tracks "Marmoset" and "Radar Love Lizard" were mistakenly listed in reverse order on the vinyl edition's track listing. Their titles were mistakenly swapped on the CD version.

The inner sleeve contained explanations of the lyrical content for the tracks:

  1. "We Don't Hate Vegetarians, We Just Think They Are Funny"
  2. "Singular Eyebrow as a Fashion Statement"
  3. "Puny But Angry"
  4. "A Professed Goal of Space Program; Conception and Birth in Space"
  5. "Blatant Coachmen Rip off"
  6. "Lotten Flucking Ruck"
  7. "Golden Earring Tribute/Reptile Tendencies"
  8. "Lincoln Park Zoo Nocturnal Mammal Building/Failed Hummer"
  9. "Bonus Edgar Blossom Muchas Gracias"
  10. "Men Suck"

Personnel

Production

References

  1. 1 2 Ankeny, Jason. "Two Nuns and a Pack Mule". AllMusic . Retrieved March 17, 2010.
  2. ↑ Thompson, Dave (April 12, 2000). "Alternative rock". San Francisco : Miller Freeman Books; Berkeley, CA : Distributed to the book trade in the U.S. and Canada by Publishers Group West; Milwaukee, WI : Distributed to the music trade in the U.S. and Canada by Hal Leonard Publishing – via Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ Martin C. Strong (2002). The Great Rock Discography (6th ed.). Canongate Books. ISBN   978-1-84195-312-0 . Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  4. ↑ Tommaso Franci. "Rapeman". OndaRock . Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  5. ↑ Brackett, Nathan. "Rapeman". The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. November 2004. pg. 69, cited March 17, 2010
  6. ↑ "Big Black".
  7. ↑ "FACT's 100 Best Albums of the 1980s: Footnotes, statistics and the list as plain text - Page 6 of 6". July 5, 2013.


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